Playing Shenzi

Hi there!
Beth here, and I'm going to tell you about what it was like to play Shenzi in the recent school show. When I first auditioned, I hadn't even considered to try out for the role of any of the hyenas. My preferences were for Scar and Simba, but now looking back, I'm so happy that I was given the role of Shenzi, I feel it really suited my personality and acting style.
I was put in a hyena group with Ella and Ellen, but later on we had a switch so my final cast was Ella as Banzai and Aisling as Ed.
My favourite part about performing as Shenzi was the singing. "Chow Down" is, in my opinion, the most fun song in the show (though I might be a tad biased) and we also got to sing on "The Madness of King Scar" with Georgina, another really fun performance.
Backstage got a bit stressful at times, especially with our huge masks - we were so afraid that somebody would knock off them and break them! Navigating backstage with a huge hyena head is never something I thought I would do. But it was worth it for the amazing artwork and the effect that the masks gave.
Overall the show was a great success, and every minute of work put into the art, singing, dancing and business really paid off!